‘Interlude’ or the in-between is an experimental space at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, for pause, or self-reflection. This new initiative is a platform for critiquing and busting memes of today or of the times to come. The vision is to create a space that lies in the intersection between academic learning and a ‘design-free’ zone, where postgraduate students from Srishti and other institutions come together and critically engage in the act of ‘meme-busting’.

Postgraduate Interlude 2016 was initiated on 28th November 2016 with the larger theme of “Smart Cities, Big Data, The Internet of Things and Digital Rights” by Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology in collaboration with UNESCO Chair in Culture, Habitat & Sustainable Development. Regional and National governments, corporations, industries, communities, NGOs, individual practitioners are engaged with these ideas, aiming to shape a future of our homes, cities, and our lives. This new future that seems to be determined by advanced, pervasive and mobile sensing technologies, and intelligent infrastructures of data analysis, processing, and decision making, has been taken up for a debate and deliberation.

Whose future is it? Is it a singular future? Who will have rights to this future? Who will determine these rights? If and how can it be made into multiple futures for all?

Whose data is it? Who will own all the data being collected? Who will profit from these? If and how can data be democratized?

What and Where is Smartness? What determines Smartness of an inhabitable space? How does the experience of living get redefined?

These unsubstantiated questions were introduced to the postgraduate students in the Interlude space at Srishti, to critically and creatively examine, and inquire into the questions brought forward by the various notions embedded in the larger theme.

The Postgraduate Interlude 2016 culminated in a Public conference & exhibition on the 19 December to 21 December 2016. A panel of internal experts curated the student responses under sub-themes, and over two days the student teams exhibited and presented their positions to public at large. These presentation sessions were interspersed with expert commentary and public debate by multisectoral and disciplinary speakers, scholars, and practitioners.